• British actor of Irish descent
• Attended Guildhall School of Music and Drama and various London drama studios
• Appeared in various films and TV shows, including Jupiter Ascending and Star Wars: Episode VIII • The Last Jedi
• Portrayed Vyr in Netflix series “The Witcher”, shared the screen with Henry Cavill and Emma Appleton
• Dating actor Sam Heughan, admitted to being gay
Contents
Luke Neal is a British actor of Irish descent, who is famous for appearing in “Jupiter Ascending” and “Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi”. He landed the role of Vyr in “The Witcher”, sharing the screen with Henry Cavill and Emma Appleton.
Early life and family
Luke Neal was born in 1982, in Hereford, the county town of Herefordshire, England. Almost nothing is known about his family and relatives, except that parents are of Irish descent, and his mother always supported his dream to pursue an acting career.
Educational background
Luke matriculated form his local high school in Hereford in 2000, and then studied in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He also attended classes at several London drama studios to improve his acting skills.
Career
First steps
Luke debuted in “Colditz” in 2005, landing the minor role of Hewitt. Then he played Lewis in “Wilderness” (2006) and Colin Fountain in the popular series “Midsomer Murders”, appearing in the episode entitled “The Dogleg Murders” (2009). In 2009 Luke portrayed Sir Geraint in the episode “The Curse of Cornelius Sigan” in the famous series “Merlin”.
The same year he also landed a minor role in another popular TV series “Doc Martin”, appearing as Andy in the “Better the Devil” episode of the show. In 2010 he could be seen in the series “Ashes to Ashes”, and in 2011 he appeared as DS Chris Latham in “Scott & Bailey”, and as City boy in “Spooks”. Luke got his first recurring role in 2013, when he landed the role of Drew Bailey in the series “The Politician’s Husband”, appearing in three episodes of the show. In 2014 he was in five episodes of the show “Halo: Nightfall”, portraying the character of Horrigan.
Further success
In 2015 Luke landed the role of Royal Guard in “Jupiter Ascending”, directed by the Wachowskis, in which he shared the screen with Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis. In 2016 Luke played Jonathan in “Love Is Thicker Than Water”, and then appeared in the TV mini-series “SS-GB”, landing the role of Burnham. The same year he filmed as Jarvis in “Megan Leavey” and as Jack Wright in the TV mini-series “Gunpowder”, launched by HBO. Luke then played Canto Cop in “Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi” (2017) – the movie was a major success, and gained Luke more job offers from the moment it was released.
Luke also provided the voice of Owsla in “Watership Down”, an animation series about the band of rabbits living in the rural of England, in 2018 based on the book by Richard Adams and David Parkins. In 2019 Luke appeared as Commander Rune-Lux in the “Krypton” series, and could be seen in the episode “Blood Moon”, which was released in the second season of the show. He also appeared in two short movies: “Dan!” and “Luke!”.
Theatre career
Along with his successful career on TV, Luke has participated in numerous theatre productions.
He debuted in the Royal Shakespeare Co. Theatre’s production of “Antony and Cleopatra” in 2006, then in the same company’s productions of “The Tempest” (2006), “Julius Caesar” (2006) and “The Histories Cycle” (2007 – 2008). In 2010 Luke landed the role of Rick in the production of Old Vic Theatre entitled “Six Degrees of Separation”, and in 2011 he played Doctor in “Dream Story”, directed by Anna Ledwich in Gate Theatre, London.
Vyr in “The Witcher”
Luke landed the role of Vyr, one of the bandits in the gang of Princess Renfri, in the new Netflix series “The Witcher” in 2019.
Luke filmed in the pilot episode, portraying one of the twin brothers (his on-screen brother, Nimir, was played by Zoltan Lörincz), who followed Renfri to Blaviken, where the whole band with Renfri herself were killed by Geralt, the witcher. After this massacre Geralt got his nickname “Butcher of Blaviken”, which he didn’t enjoy, of course, as his decision to kill the bandits was a ‘lesser evil’ he chosen, though he would like to leave without killing anybody. Luke was later replaced by Tomasz Krzemieniecki, who was in fact a stunt performer.
Personal life. Is Luke Neal gay?
Luke was dating his girlfriend Faye Thomas, a photographer, in 2013. However, the couple split the same year, and Faye dated the actor Kieran Bew, and married in August 2019. Luke remained single for a long period of time, then shocked his fans with news of his sexuality, admitting to dating Sam Heughan, the actor who played Ashton Prince of Castlebury in “A Princess for Christmas” (2011) and Jamie Fraser in the “Outlander” series (2014 – present). Caitriona Balfe, who shared the screen with Sam in “Outlander”, later said that she felt very uncomfortable while filming intimacy scenes, as she knew that Sam was a gay, and she literally felt how hard it was for him to be so close to an almost naked woman.
Due to speculation around Sam and Luke’s relationship, the latter had to remove his Instagram account to avoid reading the comments about his or his boyfriend’s sexuality. In the comments to his last post there he wrote: ‘Hey guys, whilst I don’t mind you commenting on this, and I am very proud that Sam has caused such a stir in the world, please, keep it clean and nice… I can’t have people insulting my boy and questioning his integrity on my page and not say something’.
Hobbies, favorite things and interesting facts
Luke started his acting career in the Royal Shakespeare Company, but later left it.
Rey's parents pic.twitter.com/uNtPEeekuC
— Star Wars Stuff (@starwarstuff) March 15, 2020
He likes swimming, travelling and reading books whenever he has some spare time in his tight working schedule. His favorite color is purple. One of his favorite actors is Tom Cruise.
Appearance
Luke has light brown short hair and blue eyes. He is 6ft 4ins (1.93 m) tall and weighs around 187lbs (85kgs).
Net worth and salary
As of 2020, Luke’s net worth is estimated to be around $500,000.
